Industry veteran Adams said that he had always felt that Stan Lee and Jack Kirby's X-Men had begun in the middle of a story.

The First X-Men will star Wolverine and focus on the first public emergence of mutants.

"Basically it takes place before the original X-Men and it's a time when mutants are coming [out in the country]," said Gage.

"In this context, Wolverine is noticing this going on and says, 'Someone needs to protect these people.' "

Professor X is approached, but the young man is engaged to be married and "wants no part of it".

"One of the things that attracted me to jump at this project is that in those early X-Men, everyone hates and fears mutants, but nobody really knows why," said editor Nick Lowe.

"That's one of the coolest things this series does. It gives a palpable reason that is core to some of the biggest X-characters there are: why mutants are hated and feared and why it's so different from other superheroes when they [start to appear]."

The First X-Men was mentioned by Adams last June when he accidentally revealed that he was collaborating with Gage on Twitter.